In U.S. Pat. No. Des. 318,524, commonly assigned herewith there is illustrated a shower door which comprises a plurality of panels joined together by hinges which are supported by brackets secured to the planar surface of the panel. One of the disadvantages of this construction is the difficulty of sealing the bracket-panel interface.
In U.S. application Ser. No. 622,583, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,543, commonly assigned herewith the contents of which are incorporated by reference thereto, there is described a modified shower door hinge structure which connects to the vertical edges of the panels. The hinge components are suitably formed as extrusions, and the knuckles of the hinges are formed by cutting away tubular segments of the extrusions at intervals. Separate sealing strips were provided to reduce leakage of water across the hinge. Although the manufacture of this type of hinge and shower door is amenable to automation, the manufacture of the hinge elements is relatively slow.
Shower door enclosures for baths typically require at least three panels joined together by two hinges. In order to make the assembly fold flat, one of the hinges has its axis normally in the plane of the panels when they are coplanar, which type of hinge is referred to in the specification as an in-line hinge, and the other hinge has its axis off-set from the plane, which type of hinge is referred to as an off-set hinge. The in-line and off-set hinges of these other shower door assemblies have no common major component, excluding the hinge pin, thereby adding to the manufacturing cost. Since the door assemblies themselves are handed, the left and right hand off-set hinges may also differ.
It is convenient for packaging, installation and the maintenance of shower door enclosures to provide a means for the panels of the enclosures to be joined together or separated one from the other in situ. Where a long, continuous hinge pin is used this is usually impossible, as the clearance above the doors when installed is usually less than the length of the hinge pin.
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel hinge assembly.
It is another object of this invention to provide a hinge assembly that is particularly suited for use in connecting the panels of a shower door enclosure together.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a hinge assembly that may be made from extruded sections without necessitating specialized equipment, if at all.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide planar or off-set hinge assemblies having a common major component.
It is another object of this invention to provide hinge assemblies that are self-sealing to reduce the passage of water thereacross.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide shower doors that are particularly suited for partial assembly and disassembly in situ.